I'll Face my Dread
by skywardsoul1
Summary: When Minato Arisato returns, strange things begin to happen. Tartarus appears on the Midnight Channel. People begin disappearing once more. And who's the kid floating down the Samegawa with a kunai between his shoulders?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own the Persona franchise or any of it's assets. The only thing I own is the OC that will be introduced at a later point in this. Any relations to persons or events is coincidental. Please support the games. Thank you!**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Return

* * *

_Tick…Tick…Tick…Tick…_

Aigis checked her internal clock for what must have been the umpteenth time that night. It was 12:01 A.M. It had been 13 months and 13 days since the Ex-Sees members had defeated Nyx. 12 months, 13 days since Minato had passed away whilst lying on her lap.

Things had never been the same since his death. No longer would she walk into the kitchen, just to see Minato failing at cooking when it was his turn. No longer would she wait patiently outside his door until he woke up late on days off, hear him blasting his favorite song through his headphones, or feel the warmth of his body against hers…

And then there was Minako. Poor Minako. Not only had she lost her parents in a car accident 11 years ago, but now she had also lost her twin brother. The first week after Minato had died, she carried on like normal.

She broke on the eighth day...

She spent most days in his old room, lying on his bed, crying, wishing she could have done something to save him.

Aigis clasped her hands against her chest. A familiar warm feeling flowed through her body. She had allowed Minato to touch the most precious part of her body, her Papillion Heart. That touch, the warmth that it gave her, never left. It was all that kept her going some days.

Aigis sighed. Knowing that today was her and her fellow ex members of SEES' senior graduation, she shut down, hoping her dreams would bring her solace from her sorrow...

* * *

_Aigis opened her eyes. She immediately locked her gaze onto the massive object in before her. A large door towered over her, and on it, a statue stood, crucified. It was Minato. The reason he had died. The Great Seal._

_ Footsteps sounded from behind Aigis. She turned, and tensed, ready for battle, but then paused. It was only Elizabeth, the attendant to the Velvet Room. She passed right through Aigis, causing her to realize she was dreaming._

_ Elizabeth stood before the towering monolith that was the Great Seal, spreading her arms wide and skyward. She began shouting something._

"_Oh mighty Philemon! Hear my humble plea! Grant unto your faithful servant one final request! Allow me to take the place of The Dark Messiah, Minato Arisato, as the Great Seal!"_

_Suddenly, both Minato and Elizabeth erupted in a blaze of white light, blinding Aigis. When her vision cleared, Aigis was completely shocked. She started running towards the scene, but was jarred from her dreams suddenly…_

* * *

"Aigis! Wake up! We're leaving soon!" Fuuka chimed, knocking loudly on Aigis' door.

Aigis' internal functions began to work again as she activated her startup sequence. After it was complete, she moved to her closet. Not long after Minato's death, she had received an upgrade from the Kirijo group. Her body, though it still contained all of the weaponry she needed, had been greatly changed. Her body was much like a human female's, and after some experimentation with clothes, Aigis had discovered she was approximately the same clothing size as Minako and Yukari.

Scanning her wardrobe briefly, she decided what she would wear. She donned a light blue sundress, the same one she had been wearing when she met Minato after those 10 long years. She put on a pair of sandals and walked out of her room, softly closing the door behind her.

She arrived at the bottom floor of the dormitory, where everyone else was already waiting, Shinjiro included. Although the doctors thought he wouldn't be able to pull through, by some miracle, he had woken from his coma. She nodded at all of them. They nodded in return, and departed.

* * *

The group arrived about 30 minutes after their graduation at the Iwatodai cemetery. They made their way to the back corner, near a sprouting persimmon tree. One by one, they all approached the lone headstone, bowing their heads. Junpei lit some incense, and placed down a pair of headphones. Yukari came next, following suit, removing the choker from around her neck, and placing it at the base of the headstone. Next, Mitsuru went forward. She removed a SEES armband from her bag, and placed it next to the other offerings. Akihiko attached a Gekkoukan badge to the headstone.

Fuuka placed a bowl of ramen she had made that morning, having kept it in a thermos until they arrived. Koromaru brought a Kunai forth and set it down gently. Ken put a Phoenix Ranger Featherman R figurine next to it. Shinjiro and Minako walked forward. Shinji gently placed down an Evoker. Minako, barely holding back tears, knelt down and put a bundle of roses down. She got back up, tears streaming down her face. Shinji pulled her into his arms, and stroked her head, trying to console her.

Lastly, Aigis came forward. She pulled a picture from her bag, and gently set it behind all of the other offerings. All of them began to cry, silently. It was a picture of the ex SEES members, all together, smiling, like a family might, Minato in the center. They all bowed their heads one last time, turned, and walked away. They were nearly out of the clearing that Mitsuru had ordered to be prepared a year back for Minato's funeral, when they heard something.

A very distinct slurping noise.

Everyone slowly turned around, fully expecting to see some homeless person with no respect for the dead chowing down on Fuuka's offering. To say that they were shocked at what they saw would be the understatement of the century.

None other than Minato Arisato sat there, leaning against the headstone. He turned his head, noticing the other members of the group. He finished off the rest of the broth, set down the bowl, and gave a small wave of his hand.

"Yo, what's up, guys?"

Minato was suddenly tackled to the ground by Aigis. The others stood in shock once more, not able to comprehend how Aigis had managed to clear the distance that fast.

"M-Minato-kun!"

"Aigis, what's gotten into you?"

"Nothing… nothing at all…"

"Are you sure? You seem… oh gosh, are you crying Aigis? What happened? Who do I need to beat the crap out of for making you cry?"

Aigis shook her head, laughing slightly.

"No you idiot… I'm just… I'm just…"

Minato didn't realize what was going on, but did the best he could. He calmly wrapped his arms around Aigis, and began stroking her back.

Recovering from their double-dose of shock, the other members of SEES quickly gathered around, crying out of sheer happiness now. Koromaru barked excitedly, and wailed at the noonday sun, causing everyone to laugh. They all couldn't believe it.

Minato Arisato was back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everybody, what's up? Well, since the first chapter seemed to be received so well, here's another! This one is largely Minato x Aigis fluff, so sorry if it's not your cup of tea. Anyways, thanks to all you who took time out of your day to read my story! It means a lot to me as an author. I'll try to get chapters up as often as possible, but due to circumstances, I'm not able to have a set schedule. Some months I might update several times, other months, not at all.**

**Read and Review! It really does help me write better when I know what I'm doing right/wrong.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any assets of the Persona series. ATLUS is the owner of said assets. The only thing of this story that I own is the OC which I'm hoping to introduce soon. Please support the games!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Sensory Overload

* * *

Minato awoke early the next morning. He heard the soft sound of breathing near him. He turned, and saw Aigis, sleeping softly under the covers. He couldn't help but smile. Looking at the clock, he saw it was only 4:30 A.M. He gently wrapped his arms around Aigis, and pulled her closer. She shifted slightly, but remained asleep. Minato was pleasantly surprised at how much Aigis had changed. There was nothing about her that gave her away as being an Anti-Shadow Weapon.

Minato gently caressed Aigis' face. Everything was a blur. One moment, he was laying in Aigis' lap on graduation day. The next, he was propped up against a tombstone, smelling the unmistakable scent of Fuuka's improved cooking.

Aigis began to mutter something in her sleep.

"No… not again… don't… leave me…"

Minato realized what was going on. She was having a dream, most likely about him leaving her. He gently moved his hand down her back, until he found the point he was looking for. One quick press later and Aigis arched her back, yelping at the sudden ticklish sensation. She looked around, panicked for a second, until she locked eyes with Minato. She calmed down, and smiled.

"Oh… thank goodness… it's you…"

"Who else would it be? I'm the only one who knows you're ticklish there."

"Of course."

"Aigis, what were you dreaming about? You seemed distressed for a little bit…"

Aigis nodded. "It was nothing. It's just… now that you're here… I'm just… I'm just…"

Minato gently held the left side of Aigis' face, causing her to suddenly stop. He gently moved forward, planting a kiss on her mouth.

"Shh… don't worry about it… I promise, I'll never leave you…"

Aigis frowned once again. "You know that isn't true… eventually, you'll grow old and…"

She was cut off once again. This time, Minato just gently hugged her.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you..."

"What do you mean? Is something wrong?"

"No. Aigis, the reason I can make that promise, is because I can't die."

Aigis stared in shock. How could Minato not die? He was a human. Humans died eventually.

"B-but how? How is that even possible?" Aigis said, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.

Minato simply smiled. "In the great seal, I underwent a trial. To see if I was truly worthy of keeping Nyx contained. It was simple: I had to fuse with my persona, Messiah. Even though Elizabeth has taken my place, I still retain my fused body with Messiah."

Aigis stared in disbelief.

"There's one more thing Aigis: I will never age, nor will I ever die. I was also given the power to perform a miracle, by Philemon. Aigis, if you want me to…"

Aigis took in a sharp breath. He remembered. He actually remembered.

* * *

_Minato laid in Aigis' lap, on a bench on top of the school. Midterms were over, and they decided they wanted to spend some quality time together to celebrate it._

_ "Aigis," Minato began._

_ "What is it, Minato?"_

_ "Have you ever… wanted to be human? Not just a robot with a soul, but, an actual human?"_

_ Aigis thought about Minato's question. _

"_I am quite happy the way I am… but I admit, there have been times when I have wanted to be human. To laugh, to cry, raise a family…" Aigis paused after the last bit. She had always loved the idea of raising a family, but she knew it was impossible. She didn't have reproductive capabilities. It was physically impossible for her to have a child._

"_Raise a family, huh? That would be nice…"_

"_Yes… perhaps someday, sometime, I might be able to…"_

_Minato paused._

"_Aigis?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_How would you feel about getting married? I mean, after our senior year?"_

_Aigis smiled. _

"_I think that would be wonderful, Minato…"_

"_Yeah…"_

_Minato closed his eyes, breathing softly. A gentle breeze blew over the rooftop, bringing a sense of calm and serenity to the couple._

"_I love you, Mina-kun"_

"_I love you too, Ai-chan…"_

* * *

"Y-you mean… you can…?"

"Yes, Aigis. I can make you human, if you want, and have you live forever, like me... We can get married, live together, raise a family, and be with each other forever!"

Tears shone in Aigis' eyes. She pulled Minato into a love-filled death-grip hug.

"Yes… that would make me happy… please… make me human Mina-kun…"

"Sure thing. Anything for you, Ai-chan."

It was around 5:30 A.M. by the time they had finished talking. Half an hour later, Minato had finished the transformation process. Aigis gently got up from the bed, and began to walk around. Sensations bombarded her from every direction. She could feel the floor under her… her…

Her feet! She had feet, with toes and everything! Aigis giggled, delighted with what she was feeling. It had actually happened! She was human! She gave Minato a huge kiss, smelling his hair, tasting his lips, feeling the skin of her forehead against his.

The duo walked downstairs, after both changing out of their pajamas. They walked into the kitchen, where Shinjiro was already hard at work, preparing breakfast for everyone. He looked, up, and gave them a nod.

"Morning you two. How'd you sleep?"

Minato smiled. "Pretty good. You?"

"Nah. I was up all night. Minako needed someone to talk to, so I stayed with her last night." He paused. "Don't worry 'big bro'. Nothing happened."

Minato just laughed. "It's fine. I trust you."

Aigis tentatively sniffed, and was shocked at what she smelled.

"Shinji-senpai, that smells amazing!"

Shinji nearly dropped the carton of eggs he had taken from the fridge.

"Excuse me? Did you just say that this smells good?"

Aigis tilted her head. "Is it not supposed to?"

Shinji nearly broke the windows with how loud he yelled.

"SINCE WHEN CAN YOU SMELL THINGS?!"

The thunderous sound of footsteps cascaded into the kitchen. Everyone had stormed downstairs, thinking Shinji was under attack. They were surprised to see that wasn't the case.

"What's going on? Why were you yelling Shinji?" Mitsuru impatiently demanded.

Shinji pointed at Aigis. "SHE CAN FREAKING SMELL THINGS!"

Everyone turned and looked at Aigis. She smiled. They returned their gaze to Shinji.

"Seriously, man? You've gotta be kidding me. She's a robot. She doesn't have a sense of smell." Akihiko stated.

Meanwhile, Aigis had gone over to the fridge. There was something in there that she'd always wanted to try. She grabbed a can of whipped cream, aimed it down her throat, and fired. Everyone turned the instant they heard muffled laughter.

"Oh my gosh, this is amazing!" Aigis giggled after she swallowed, spraying more whipped cream down her throat.

Everyone, save Minato and Koromaru, hurried to pick their jaws up from the floor. In unison, they all shouted.

"WHAT THE HECK?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everybody, It's me again! Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last couple of chapters. I live to see that review counter go up, so leave any feedback, good or bad, so I can improve my writing for your guys sake! Anyways, thank you all for reading!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Persona franchise or am in any way associated with ATLUS. I only own an OC that will be introduced at a later point, alongside this fic. Please support the games!**

* * *

Chapter 3: KING'S GAME!

After the initial shock, several food taste tests, and a very brief explanation from Minato later, everyone had come to accept the fact that Aigis was in fact, human. The girls decided it was prudent to take Aigis on a shopping spree, courtesy of Mitsuru. After all, according to them, she needed a whole new wardrobe, since there were so many new things she could experience. At Minato's request, they agreed to also pick up a cell phone for her, since she no longer had an on-board cell phone. They left just before lunch, leaving all of the guys behind.

An hour passed, and they were bored out of their minds.

"Hey, I have an idea." Ken chimed in.

"Sure. Anything to stop being bored." Junpei stated.

"How about we have a Street Fighter tourney? We've got nothing better to do."

Akihiko grinned. "I'm in. Games or not, I always enjoy a good fight."

Everyone agreed, and the tournament began.

Several hours later, the girls returned home, carrying dozens of shopping bags. Yukari set her load down. "Hey guys, we're back!" No reply, save for various shouts from the guys and sounds from the game. Minato, having dropped out of the tournament because of a bad round against Ken, (that kid was the devil when it came to Hadouken –throwing.) acknowledged their return. Aigis happily ran up to him, wearing a new outfit, and clutching something in her hands.

She was wearing a pair of black flats, along with white tights, and a black knee-length skirt. She also had on a white blouse, with her signature red ribbon tied at her neck. Her cooling system had conveniently come off as a pair of wireless headphones when she became human, but she continued to wear them, despite having no need to. She held out her hands.

"Look, I got a cell phone!" She happily stated. It was a yellow flip phone, with a singular white stripe down the middle.

"That's great! Have you gotten anybody's numbers yet?"

She shook her head. Minako chimed in.

"We offered, but she refused. She wanted to make sure you were the first one she put into her contacts list."

Minato smiled. Pulling out his cell phone, he deleted the old number Aigis had used, and traded numbers with her. He registered her under the name, "Ai-chan," and she had him entered under the name "Mina-kun".

She smiled happily as she looked at the tiny luminescent screen. Suddenly, Ken cried out.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MY TITLE OF DORM CHAMPION! HOW?!"

Shinji chuckled. "Didn't you know Ken? I was the Street Fighter champion in my neighborhood when I was your age."

Everyone laughed, until Mitsuru cleared her throat.

"Well, now that everything is all said and done, I have a surprise for all of you. To celebrate the return of Arisato, and Aigis' becoming human, I've booked the top floor for all of us at Club Escapade."

Everyone cheered.

* * *

They arrived later, when Junpei had a sudden epiphany.

"Wait a minute, how come we can come in here? We're still minors. And Ken is still in middle school!"

Ken replied. "They stopped serving alcohol here a couple years back, and opened the place up to all ages. Too many DUI incidents, so they broadened their customer base to compensate for the loss of alcoholics. Besides…" Ken waved to the bartender, and he waved back.

"I'm a regular here. I always come here after school for a Root-Beer float."

Junpei's jaw went slack.

"Oh."

They made their way to the top floor, and one of the waitresses brought them a tray of drinks, along with a pitcher. They began to chat with each other. They all caught Minato up with what had happened in the past year. Fuuka had greatly improved her cooking skills. Ken had built up a stockpile of games before Minato died, and was telling him about what games had released in Minato's favorite series.

Suddenly, another group entered the loft area. Approximately 8 students slightly younger than them came up. Junpei immediately recognized two of them.

"NARUKAMI?! RISETTE?!"

Yu Narukami blinked. Then he smiled broadly.

"Junpei, how are you man?"

"Not bad. But that's not the point."

"Then what is?"

"Why are you here, and with Risette nonetheless?

A girl with a green jacket tied around her waist chimed in.

"Yu, you know this guy?"

"Yeah. He was my sempai at my school in Tokyo, until he transferred in eighth grade."

Thy all introduced themselves.

"Hi, I'm Yu Narukami."

"I'm Yosuke Hanamura."

"Nice to meetcha! I'm Chie Satonaka."

"Hello. Um, I'm Yukiko Amagi."

"Sup? The name's Kanji Tatsumi."

"Hey there! I'm Rise Kujikawa, otherwise known as Risette!"

"Why hello beautiful ladies. My name is Teddie."

"And my name is Naoto Shirogane. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

The two groups began to get acquainted. Suddenly, Rise began drunkenly swaying side to side.

"KANJI, get the chopsticks! It's time for KING'S GAME!"

"Aww crap, not again!"

Kanji tried to resist, but with little success. Soon, 16 pairs of chopsticks had been marked. Everyone drew a pair, hoping to find the red one, the one that would declare them king for that round. Teddie had drawn the King's Stick.

"As the king, I hereby command number two to smooch me!"

Everybody looked at each other, turning their sticks around.

Nobody had stick number two.

Except…

They all looked towards Koromaru. He put the chopsticks on the ground. On them was written "#2". They looked from Koromaru to Teddie, and back to Koromaru. Koromaru got up, and leapt at Teddie, licking his face like there was no tomorrow. Everybody burst into laughter. Koromaru and Teddie were out, so they removed #15 and #16 from the jar, and went again. This time, Junpei was king.

"All right, time for some fun! As the king, I command number thirteen and number six to act like maids and call me 'master' for the rest of the night.

Everyone showed their chopsticks. Kanji, Akihiko, and Junpei all cried out in dismay. They were out for the remainder of the game. Junpei was cursing whatever god he could think of to blame the incident on.

The next rounds came and went. Eventually, only 6 remained: Minato, Aigis, Ken, Yu, Chie, and Shinji. The sticks were drawn. Chie, starting to become intoxicated by the atmosphere, just like Rise and Yukiko, called out the next King's order.

"As the king… I command number 1 and number 5 to hold hands for the rest of the night. Sticks were flipped. Minato smiled as he saw that he and Aigis were the lucky pair. They shuffled closer to each other, and clasped their hands together.

"Mina-kun, I'm having so much fun! This is the best day I've had in my life!"

"I'm glad to hear that, Ai-Chan."

The night continued on, until eventually, it was time for all of them to go their separate ways. They exchanged phone numbers, and agreed to meet up at some point in the future.

Little did they know that their next meeting may be more dire than they intended…


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey what's up everybody? I have a present for all of you: another chapter! *Cheering in the Background***

**Anyways, I know that my chapters aren't very long compared to other works of fiction on this site, but 1,000-1,500 words is about as much as I can write at the time being while still remaining somewhat understandable. I'll try to make chapters longer in the future, when more plot happens, but in the meantime, you can expect 1-2 more 1,000 word chapters after this.**

**Thanks to all of you who are following this story and leaving reviews! Reviews help motivate me to write more, so review when you can!**

**Disclaimer: I don' own the Persona Franchise. I wish I did. I only own the OC soon to be introduced and this fic.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Separation

"Final Stop: Yasoinaba. Yasoinaba station."

Everyone got up and stretched. All of the ex SEES members had been invited to stay at the Amagi Inn, since they were having a celebration of some sort. It was Summer Break, and the weather was perfect. As they exited the train, they found all of their old friends waiting for them, along with a couple of new faces. They exchanged friendly hellos and stories, while they all rode into Inaba.

At the inn, the guys were preparing to enter the hot springs, when they all remembered what happened the last time they tried. Teddie donned a general's cap, and began the meeting they decided to hold.

"Greetings, gentlemen. As you all well know, we have had some beary bad experiences involving hot springs. Tonight, we discuss what strategies we can use to avoid further injury at the hands of a simple misunderstanding. Akihiko, please relate your story to us."

Akihiko groaned. "Allright, fine. So, just to clear things up, this entire ordeal is Stupei's fault."

"Whadda ya mean it's entirely my fault? Ryoji was in on it to!

"Yeah, but you were the ringmaster."

"Just get on with the story."

Akihiko cleared his throat.

"Anyways, as it turns out, we had entered the hot springs just before it was the girl's turn. We tried to escape, but failed, thanks to Minato over there."

"I'm telling you, that was obviously a cat impression! Who could mistake it for anything else?"

"Anyways, long story short, we were 'executed' afterwards."

All of the male SEES members, save Ken, shuddered.

Yosuke nodded his head.

"Ours was about as bad. It wasn't our fault though. The girls had accidentally gone in when it was our turn, so when we showed up, they started freaking out."

Yu chimed in. "They started throwing buckets at us. Where they got them from I'll never know. I failed as a general. We tried to hold the line, but we inevitably had to retreat, after we lost Kanji to a bucket to the head."

Kanji rubbed a spot on his head. "It still hurts, man."

Teddie nodded. "Well then, here's what I propose…"

* * *

Yukiko looked at the clock.

"Oh my, it's almost girl's hour. You guys ready?"

Naoto groaned.

"Yukiko, you're sure you have the timeslot right this time? I still feel bad about what happened last time…"

Chie nodded.

"Poor Kanji. I didn't realize you were such a good shot with a bucket Naoto."

Minako joined into the conversation.

"Why? What happened?"

"It's a long story. We'll tell you when we get to the hot spring."

When the girls arrived, they were shocked. All of the guys were there, and…

"…does anybody know why they all have blindfolds on?" Chie said.

Shinji waved a hand in the girl's general direction.

"Whadda you all want? It's the guy's hour."

Kanji nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. There's even a schedule there for your convenience."

All of the girls turned to their left, seeing a printout of the hot spring's schedule. It said that "Men's Hour" ran from 6:30-7:30 P.M, and "Women's Hour" was 8:00-9:00 P.M. They looked at the clock on the wall. It was 6:35 P.M.

"Yukiko, how hard is it to keep the schedule straight? Honestly…" Yukari said, shaking her head.

Yosuke yelled over to the group.

"Feel free to join us. We've got our trunks on, and we put these blindfolds on just in case something like last time happened. And don't worry; we've got Teddie on a short leash, so you don't need to worry about him."

The girls were about to disagree, when Nanako went ahead and jumped in, making her way over to Yu. She gave him a great big hug, and started happily talking about her day.

Mitsuru began to panic.

"N-Nanako-chan, what are you doing?! Get away from him!"

Rise calmed Mitsuru down.

"Don't worry about it. He won't do anything. He's her cousin."

The other girls reluctantly joined in, but stayed far away from the guy's side, refraining from saying something they might overhear. Later on, after everyone had washed up and gotten into their robes, they all went their separate ways into their rooms, except Shinji and Minako. She had fallen asleep leaning against Shinji's shoulder while the festivities were occurring. Not wanting to disturb her, he stayed on the couch they had been on. Suddenly, Minato and Aigis came around the corner. Minato smiled, and handed Shinji a blanket, then walked off with Aigis.

Shinji carefully wrapped the blanket around Minako and himself, trying not to disturb her. He couldn't help but smile when he saw her. She had been his reason to keep on living after he had taken a bullet for Ken last year. He remembered waking up to see her, holding his hand gently.

He turned off the lights, and began to nod off to sleep. He awoke suddenly, several hours later, when he heard an abnormal sound. Looking up, he realized the TV had turned on. He looked, but the remote was far from him. He turned to see what had shown up on the TV. He was in for the shock of his lifetime.

It was Tartarus. And standing in front of it, a very distressed looking Aigis. She searched around desperately, as if she were looking for someone, or something.

_"Minato? Minato? Minato, where are you?"_

She paused for a brief moment.

_"Mina-kun… please… come back…"_

She fell to her knees, and began crying, when the TV suddenly turned off.

Several seconds later, he heard a stampede of footsteps, and saw Yu and company enter the main room. Kanji spoke up first.

"What the heck? What is going on? Didn't we deal with that Midnight Channel garbage?!"

Yosuke cut in.

"Why did Aigis show up? What does she have to do with any of this? And who's this 'Mina-kun' she was looking for?!"

Shinji nodded grimly.

"Go wake the others. They need to know this happened."

* * *

After everyone had been gathered together, Yu began to explain the situation.

"A while back, a string of murders began happening here in Inaba. We discovered someone had been throwing people into an alternate world inside the TV. We decided that, the most likely way they died was that they were attacked by something called a "Shadow" of their true selves.

All of the SEES members looked at each other. Yu continued.

"Eventually, some of our friends began to be thrown in. They managed to face their Shadows, and gained the ability to summon a 'Persona'. An old man I met once told me it was a manifestation of your Psyche, or something along those lines.

The SEES members stayed quiet. Then, Fuuka spoke up.

"Excuse me, but you just say 'Persona'?"

Yu nodded.

"Yeah. Why?"

"No reason. It's just that…' When she was suddenly quieted by Mitsuru.

"What? What about 'em?" Yosuke said casually.

Koromaru whimpered, obviously becoming tired. Ken yawned, and then began to speak.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, I'm sure it's a long story anyways. Regardless… starting tomorrow, we need to try and rescue Aigis. And considering what she said… Minato as well."

They all nodded in agreement. Tomorrow began their first excursion into what they dubbed, the "Tower of Midnight".


End file.
